Arrival in An Daral

 Today we arrived in An Daral. It is a small town not far from Farah where we are stationed. We drove though the city with our military vehicles and were instantly surrounded by young and old. The boys in particular, were very interested in our equipment and followed after us as we drove though the town. 

I commanded the soldiers to get down and meet with the children. I believe it is important to show them that we are friendly and want to help improve their lives. The children were so excited especially when we gave out toys and candy. They couldn't believe their luck. They were so happy just to receive small items that seem trivial to us, but are things that they had never seen before. 

Some boys stared at one of our soldiers who is of African descent. I don't think they had ever seen a person with black skin before. I don't believe that they were racist, just incredibly curious. 

The people in this area are very poor. The Taliban left very little of value and there are few facilities such as schools and medical centres. We will commence by building a school for girls. Most of the girls in this area are unable to read and have no schooling at all. We want to make sure that they are able to get an education and improve their lives in some way. 

The market place is a amazing. I will never stop being surprised by how much produce and other items are in sale in places even as poor as An Daral. People are so resourceful and make use of everything they find to create new items. I sometimes think that we should learn from them to make more of the resources that we have in the U.S.

That's all for this post. Next week, I will tell more about my adventures in this part of the world.